Good posture is more important than some people may realize. Depending on what your school of thought is about it and what healthcare background you are coming from posture, is one of the mixed review topics.
Here’s the key reason why it’s important; if you are constantly slouching think about what it’s doing to your muscles, your spinal curves and not to mention your organs. A great example is trying to take a deep breath is when you are sitting up straight vs when your shoulders are hunched over and you are slouching- what’s easier? Which position did you feel you got a bigger breath in?
Here’s 4 ways that will help improve your posture
Be conscious of your posture
I know this is easier said than done. Too often we are engrossed in our activity at hand and don’t realize how we are sitting. I know a lot of desk workers and students have this problem. I always recommend they either put a mirror in front of them or to the side so they can see how they are sitting throughout the day. If you don’t see it you don’t notice it.
Stay active
Stretches and regular exercise can help stretch all your muscles out. Yoga is great for stretching and opening up your body. Changing your body positions helps reduce your muscles from staying in one position for too long and for that muscle memory from forming.
3. Deep breathing
Taking deep breaths are much easier when you are sitting up straight and using your diaphragm. Sometimes when we are rushing we start breathing through our chest and our scalene muscles which are on your neck tend to get tight. Tight neck muscles eventually lead to rounding shoulders if they aren’t relaxed with stretching or massage. I teach my patients that they can tell how they are breathing by placing one hand on their chest and one hand on their abdomen. See which hand is moving more when your are breathing. The goal is the hand on the abdomen should be moving more.
4.Get regular Chiropractic adjustments
Chiropractic adjustments can help correct poor posture by increasing your mobility and Chiropractors can do a postural assessment giving you all the tools you can use at home to help improve your posture. It can be something simple as modifying your workspace to a stretching routine to changing your pillow. Chiropractors can also help you figure out how you are breathing – chest or abdomen.
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